Gender, Not Birth Order, Predicts Stressor Frequency in Emerging Adults

The present study examined whether birth order and gender predict the frequency of stressors experienced by emerging adults across multiple domains. Prior research suggests that older siblings often experience elevated stress, and women tend to report higher emotional and caregiving burdens across the lifespan. To investigate these patterns within emerging adulthood, 75 undergraduate students with at least one sibling completed an online survey assessing birth order, gender, and the frequency of experiencing various stressors within the past week. Participants rated stressor frequency across domains such as "demands on time from family," "demands on time from school or work," interpersonal conflict, health concerns, and other stressors. A series of two-way ANOVAs tested the effects of birth order and gender on each stressor type and the overall stressor frequency. Gender emerged as the only significant predictor of stress across models. Women reported higher overall stressor frequency and significantly greater frequency of school/work demands, health-related concerns, and miscellaneous stressors compared to men. Birth order did not significantly predict stressor frequency in any domain, nor were there significant gender x birth order interactions. These findings suggest that gendered patterns of stress may be more salient than sibling position during emerging adulthood, a developmental period marked by increasing independence and shifting family roles. The absence of birth-order effects highlights the need for future research using more diverse samples, more nuanced birth-order categorizations, and direct measures of caregiving load to clarify how family roles shape stress across the lifespan.